Ian McLoughlin is an 'astonishingly bright' man who has a violent hatred of gay men despite being bisexual himself

A double killer on the run who is suspected of murdering a third is bordering on genius level but harbours a violent hatred of gay men.

Bisexual Ian McLoughlin, 55, viciously attacked a paedophile he met in jail and is believed to have stabbed a neighbour who rushed to his aid after a row broke out on Saturday.

Grandfather and father of three, Graham Buck, 66, was killed as he tried to help paedophile Francis Cory-Wright, 87, in the village of Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire.

Today, it emerged that convicted killer McLoughlin – now the focus of a ‘massive manhunt’ has an IQ of 140 and is described as 'astonishingly bright'. Anyone with a IQ above this is considered a ‘genius’.

The killer has already served one sentence for killing one gay man, and was 22 years into a second jail term for murdering another homosexual.

McLoughlin, who also uses the surname
Baker, absconded on Saturday while on day release from an open prison
where he is serving a 25-year sentence for murdering homosexual Peter
Halls, 55, in 1990, just months after he finished a jail term for
another homophobic killing.

He murdered Mr Halls by stabbing him
through the neck while he lay face down on a bed in 1990, seven years
after he killled Len Delgatty, 49, in Stoke Newington, north London. Mr Delgatty, who
was also gay, was battered with a hammer before being strangled with a
tourniquet and then left upside down to drown in his own blood.

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McLoughlin,
who is bisexual but is said to hate gay men, fled the scene but later
crashed his car while drunk and was found to have used Mr Delgatty's
credit card.

McLoughlin was charged with murder but
convicted of manslaughter after claiming he was incensed by Mr Delgatty
playing him a tape in which he fantasised about having sex with a
teenage boy. The alleged tape was never found.

Police looking for double killer Ian McLoughlin in connection with a suspected murder in a quiet village have released this image

Wanted: Ian McLoughlin is believed to have met convicted paedophile Francis Cory-Wright, 88, in prison, and this was when he was last seen over the weekend at a hotel

Family man: McLoughlin, who had already killed twice, was on his first unescorted day out of prison when he went to rob a house and killed Mr Buck (circled above) who had gone to neighbour Francis Cory-Wright's aid

The trial heard that Mr Delgatty had previously served time in prison for under-age sex and another sex offence.

McLoughlin's 13-year sentence for the killing was reduced to eight years on appeal, but within 17 months of his release, McLoughlin, a drifter from Barrow-in-Furness who is said to have worked as a rent boy, killed again in September 1990.

Again, his victim was gay: Peter Halls, a
publican with whom McLoughlin had been living in Brighton. He forced
him to lie face down on his bed and then stabbed him through the neck
with such force that the knife came out the other side.

Forensics officers working at Cory-Wright's stone house in the village of Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire

The most recent killing took place in a quiet Hertfordshire village where, it is alleged,on his first day of unsupervised
release, McLoughlin is said to have targeted the £1million home of Old
Etonian Francis Cory-Wright, 87,a convicted paedophile he got to know
while the two were in prison together.

He is believed to have been
interrupted by a neighbour, named yesterday as grandfather and
father-of-three Graham Buck, who overheard shouting and went to help.

McLoughlin is suspected of grabbing a
knife from the kitchen and repeatedly stabbing Mr Buck, 66, a retired
businessman, before fleeing with thousands of pounds in cash.

Victim's home: A statement released by Mr Buck's family today said: 'We were all in such a happy place as a family... We cannot get over that we have lost him'

At the time of Mr Halls’ death, his sister Pamela
condemned his release from jail in the first place, saying: ‘McLoughlin
should not have been released after he committed this sort of crime the
first time.’

Yesterday, when it emerged that he was
granted day release from an open prison as part of his
‘rehabilitation’, she branded the justice system ‘a joke’.

The 71-year-old mother-of-two from
Brighton said: ‘This monster has struck again and has been allowed to
strike again because he has been freed to walk the streets just as he
was with my poor brother.'

‘I pray he is caught soon. Nothing can
change men like McLoughlin, he is evil and should have been left
rotting in a prison cell where he deserves to be, not free to kill and
kill again.’

Company director Graham Buck, 66, left, died after he went to help neighbour Francis Cory-Wright, 87, right

She said she had spent more than 20 years trying to come to terms with her brother’s killing.

She said: ‘I have tried to put Peter’s
killing behind me but you never forget. Now all the terrible emotions I
felt have come back to the surface.

‘McLoughlin has never shown a scrap of remorse for what he did to Peter. I would be happy if they gave him a lethal injection.’

Mr Buck leaves a wife, two sons, a
daughter and two grandchildren, and a wife from a previous marriage. His
wife, Karen, a 55-year-old nurse, said: ‘I’ve lost my rock. I wouldn’t
be able to do half the things I’ve done since being with Graham if it
wasn’t for him. He and his family have always been there for me in
difficult times. I don’t know what I’ll do without him.’

In a statement, his family added: ‘We
have no words to express how much Graham will be missed. We were all in
such a happy place as a family. We were all so settled, with growing
numbers of grandchildren whom he adored being around.

‘We haven’t seen him happier than being around his grandchildren, he was so proud. We cannot get over that we have lost him.’

Crime scene: Police and forensics officers worked on the houses belonging to both Mr Buck and Cory-Wright since the killing on Saturday

Shocked community: Police guard the home of Cory-Wright in the sleepy Hertfordshire village of Little Gaddesden, near Berkhamsted

McLoughlin was known to the police in Cumbria where he grew up, and ended up in a juvenile care home. He was convicted of a string of crimes including theft and burglary, and was described as a 'drifter'.

He was married briefly but, troubled by his sexuality, it did not last, and he soon turned to more serious crime.

Yesterday Detective Chief Superintendent Jeff
Hill said McLoughlin went to Cory-Wright's house for a ‘purely financial
motive’ but warned the public that McLoughlin is ‘extremely dangerous’
and should not be approached.

Paying tribute to Mr Buck, he said he had
‘paid the ultimate price for intervening at the home of an elderly
neighbour’.

Cory-Wright, who suffered injuries during the attack, was discharged from hospital yesterday.